- In this collection of essays from 1969-2013, many in book form for the first time, Noam Chomsky exposes the real nature of state power. With unrelenting logic, he holds the arguments of empire up to critical examination and shatters the myths of those who protect the power and privilege of the few against the interests and needs to the many. Covering subjects like Human Intelligence and the Environment, Terror, Justice and Self-Defence and The Welfare-Warfare state, this is an indispensable compilation of searing insights into the state of our modern world. Arguably the most important intellectual alive. (New York Times on Noam Chomsky). Noam Chomsky is a global phenomenon... he may be the most widely read American voice on the planet today. (NYT Book Review). Will there ever again be a public intellectual who commands the attention of so many across the planet? (New Statesman). The west"s most prominent critic of US imperialism... the closest thing in the English-speaking world to an intellectual superstar. (Guardian).